>>714249523
I'm 31 now and was heavily invested in following major game conferences and events back then, and I talk about this situation quite often because it's largely what made Sony the way they are now.
>Xbox has a solid grip on hardcore gaming
>PS3 fumbles the start of generation with bad pricing and complex hardware
>Devs struggle to make PS3 games, but Xbox is easy
>Nintendo has the casual market by the balls, meanwhile
>Wii is a MASSIVE hit, and brings in new gamers
>Reach mid-point or so of the console cycle
>PS3 recovers from its bad start, momentum now picks up and they're head to head with X360 on content and exclusives
>MSoft and Sony see Nintendo's success and want some of those new casuals
>They both invest in their own motion gimmicks
>Xbox goes all in on Kinect, prioritize it over their bread and butter mature Gears / Halo / etc titles
>Sony has PS Move, which is just a wiimote but for PS3
This is the part where things get crazy.
>Casual market is so big that MSoft decides it's time to totally commit to the Kinect
>Sony and MSoft are about to launch new hardware reveals
>Xbox goes first with Xbox One with a reveal several months early
>They reveal SEVERAL controversial choices including no more used games, mandatory Kinect with every unit, and online connection required to use the console
>Gamers rebel hugely
>Don Mattrick (head of Xbox) has a devastating interview where he says if you can't get online, stick with X360
https://youtu.be/bTAKSBvuT-A
>Sony (who I bet was going to do the same thing, ironically) see all the backlash and make their entire marketing about how they are NOT doing all that stuff
See >>714250070 for an example of their strategy.
>PS4 walks across the finish line without needing to do anything all that big
>In fact, they got away with adding a subscription for PSN (was free before PS4) with no backlash in Xbox's shadow
>MSoft ends up buckling under pressure but the damage is already done
The Xbox brand NEVER recovered.